Remembering Miley
by AThousandTimesMore
Summary: For the past two years, Lilly has distanced herself from everything and everyone that will bring back the memories of HER. Then she decides that maybe it's time to remember. Liley
1. Prologue: Finally Time

_**Okay, I know I should be working on my other story and I feel really guilty for posting this right now cause there's a good chance that one of these will get neglected, but I promise I'll do my best to keep up with both my stories. So, enjoy, and please click the REVIEW button at the end of the chapter and leave your thoughts! Thanks!**_

It's been a long time since I've thought about her. Almost two years. Of course, I've been trying to keep away from those memories, locking them up in the back of y mind so I wouldn't have to face them. I've distanced myself from everyone who would remind me of her. But now...now I think it's time for me to face my past, to get back in touch with everyone, to remember.

So that's why I'm sitting in my car in front of the house she used to live in. It's winter break, so I don't have to worry about missing any classes because I've driven all the way across the country to Malibu, California. Sighing, I pull the keys out of the ignition and get out of the car, closing the door behind me. I walk up to the front door and raise my hand to knock when I spot the familiar skateboard next to the door. Grabbing it, I race around to the back of the house and pull out my cell phone, dialing that familiar number.

"Lilly landing in ten!" I yell into the phone, and I hear a surprised gasp before flipping it shut. I hop on the skateboard and everything comes back to me as I kick off, zooming towards the closed door which opens just as I approach it. I come to a stop in the middle of the living room, aware of everyone's eyes on me.

Surprisingly, everyone is there. Mr. Stewart is standing by the open door and Jackson is on the stairs. Oliver is sitting on the big couch with Kristen, Rebecca, and Mark. Simon is sitting on the chair and Amelia is on the arm. I lean over and pick up the skateboard, nervously holding it in my hands.

"What're you doing here?" Oliver demands, standing up angrily. "What made you decide to show up now of all times? You don't have the right to be here anymore. You never cared, we all know that, so don't pretend to start caring now. Why don't you just go back to where you came from?"

Nodding, I head back towards the door, setting the skateboard down just inside the house, and leave. It's obvious that I'm not welcomed, and I don't want to make anyone else upset. My parents no longer live in Malibu, they moved to Seattle a year ago, so there's no use in me staying. I have no money besides what I need to use to buy gas on the way back, so there's no way that I'd be able to stay in a hotel. It's time for me to go home.

"Wait, Lilly!" I turn to see Mr. Stewart running after me, and he pulls me into a hug as I stop. I start to cry and he just holds me, rocking me back and forth as I sob. There's no reason for me to cry, it's just like something inside me broke when he touched me. The last time a Stewart touched me...no, that memory is too painful for now. I'll focus on the less painful memories. "We don't want you to leave," Mr. Stewart said. "Oliver is being unreasonable. If he has a problem with you being here, then he can leave himself. Who're you staying with, your parents? Friends?"

I pull away, wiping my eyes on my sleeve. "My parents moved to Seattle awhile ago and all my friends are in your house," I whisper. "I was...I was hoping Oliver...I can just sleep in my car."

"When did you get here?" he asks incredulously.

"Just now," I whisper. I don't tell him how long I've been sitting in front of his house summoning up the courage to go up to the door and go inside.

"You're not driving home right now," he says. "Come inside, we'll give you a little privacy to get cleaned up and get changed, then you can come out and we can try to talk Oliver down. Everyone else is trying to calm him down right now, so they're all on your side. Just...try to be careful around him. He was hurt when you left for New York."

"I know," I whisper, following him inside. No one turns their head when I walk in behind Mr. Stewart. They're all concentrated on Oliver, who's going off on a rant on how I've been the worst best friend ever and how I don't deserve forgiveness. Tears leak from my eyes as I climb the stairs after Mr. Stewart, following him into the hallway leading to the bedrooms. He stops in front of Miley's bedroom and stares at me expectantly. I realize he's waiting for something. It's then that I realize that the door is locked. It's been locked for two years.

"Do you have the key?" he asks.

Suddenly the light chain around my neck grows heavy as I realize that _I'm_ the one who locked the door. _I'm_ the last one who was in that room before it was shut away from the rest of the world. _I'm_ the one responsible for opening it back up, for the letting the memories come back, for making everything right again. I pull the chain over my head, staring at the silver key hanging from my hand. Mr. Stewart reaches out to take it, but I shake my head, taking the key and putting it in the lock with shaking hands. He steps back and I think he realizes that I have to do this myself, that this is what I came here to do.

I put the key back around my neck, tucking it underneath the collar of my shirt, and reach for the door handle, wrapping my fingers around the cold metal and slowly twisting it. The door opens easily, which surprises me, because I expect it to resist after going unused for two years. Stepping forward, the floor creaks beneath me as I cross the threshold. It's dark because of the curtains I pulled across the windows and French doors the last time I was here. I can't see anything and I slowly make my way towards the curtains, pulling them back and letting light into the room.

Everything is exactly the same. The bed is made, her books are open on her desk, her guitar is leaning against the wall next to the keyboard, her music still on the music stand. The closet door is open, revealing a door that is cracked slightly open, leading to the Hannah closet. A pile of dirty clothes lays on the floor, and the Hannah and Lola outfits are neatly set out on the chair next to the window, waiting to be put on. Our wigs are waiting for us, and it's almost as if it's that night again, and I'm just waiting for Miley to walk in the room to start changing. But I know that she won't.

And the letter is laying on the bed, just where I left it. It's the letter Miley gave to me right before she...before she...no, I can't think about that. I'm not ready for it. So I pick the letter up and sit down on the floor, leaning against the bed, and carefully open the envelope, making sure that I don't rip it because it has my name written on it in her perfect, looping script, the 'i' in my name dotted with a small heart. Tears come to my eyes as I pull out the letter and memories come flooding back. I can't keep them away, so I close my eyes and let them come. It's finally time.

_**Okay, so there you go. Once again, I can't tell you when I'm going to update this, but I can assure you that I'll try to keep up with both of my stories. I really don't want to let this go. Soooo....please REVIEW!!! :) Thanks!**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	2. Chapter One: Dear Lilly

_**Here's the next chapter. Enjoy and please read the note at the end of the chapter!!!**_

"Watcha thinkin' bout?" Miley asked, flopping down on the be next to Lilly, jolting her out of her thoughts.

"Just the first time I saw you," Lilly said carefully.

"Oh?" Miley asked, raising her eyebrows, indicating that she should elaborate.

"You know, just how you…I don't even know," Lilly sighed, turning away from Miley as she sat up, staring out the French doors in Miley's room. She felt a hand on her shoulder and her body tingled as she turned to see Miley looking at her intensely with those big, clear blue eyes. Closing her eyes, she breathed deeply, forcing herself to slow her breathing and trying to keep her heart from beating its way out of her chest.

"Hey, I know something's wrong," Miley said gently, and Lilly looked at her with a surprised expression on her face. She had thought that she was doing a good job of hiding it. "Yeah, Lilly, I'm your best friend and I know when you're faking it. Every time you look at me, you're faking a smile or a laugh and you always space out. Is there something I did to make you upset with me?"

"No, no, it isn't you," Lilly said quickly, seeing that Miley was starting to get upset. "It has nothing to do with what you've done. You're perfectly fine, there's nothing you can do, I promise. It's me. I just…I've been feeling really weird lately."

"Are you sick?" Miley asked worriedly, pressing a hand to her forehead, which only made it harder for Lilly to breathe. "Do you want me to get my dad to drive you home or something? Here, I'll get him to take you home right now and then I'll go out and get a movie and some chicken noodle soup and we can just lie around…"

Lilly pulled away from Miley's touch, tears threatening to spill down her face. "No, Miley, I'm not sick," she said in a thick voice. "It's just…I have these weird feelings and I don't know what to…I can't figure out what they are. I just…need some time to myself. I'm sorry, Miley, I know that you have a concert tonight and everything, but I…I just need some alone time. I really am sorry."

"Do you want me to do anything for you?" Miley asked worriedly.

"No, I'll…I'll just walk home now," Lilly said, cutting Miley off as she opened her mouth again. "Really, Miley, I just want to be alone right now. Your dad doesn't need to drive me home, okay? It's a fifteen minute walk. I'll text you went I get home."

Miley nodded dejectedly as Lilly stood up, walking towards the door. She glanced once over her shoulder to see Miley sitting slumped on her bed and felt guilt gnawing at her stomach, but she pushed the door open, running down the stairs, and out of Miley's house. Mr. Stewart looked at her in surprise as he finished up washing his car and called after her, but she was already too far away to hear him, running down the street with tears running down her face as she tried to get as far away from the girl who was unknowingly hurting her so much.

Bursting into her house, she ran up the stairs and into her room, slamming the door behind her and collapsing on her bed. There was a soft knock on the door and someone came in, sitting down on the bed and rubbing her back gently.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Does this have to do with Miley?"

Lilly turned away from her mom, wiping her face on her arm. "I just want to be alone right now," she said quietly, trying to keep the fact that she had been crying out of her voice.

"Well, if you need to talk, I'm here for you." There was a pause before her mom got up and left the room, gently closing the door behind her. Lilly burst into tears again and buried her face in her pillow, not noticing that her phone was ringing. Gradually, her breathing began to ease and her sobs subsided as she fell asleep.

* * *

"Go away," Lilly muttered as someone tried to shake her awake. The shaking persisted and she sat up quickly to see her mother stand back with a worried expression on her face. "What's wrong?" she asked immediately, suddenly wide awake. "It's Miley, isn't it?"

"You should probably go over there right now," her mom said. "You can take the car. Just be careful, okay?"

Lilly had already grabbed the keys from her mother's hand and was running down the stairs, pulling her jacket on and trying to get her shoes on at the same time. She ran out to the car, getting in quickly and spending two minutes trying to jam the wrong key into the ignition. Finally, she managed to get the key in the ignition, back out of the driveway, and drive to Miley's house. When she got there, she left the car idling in the driveway, not even bothering to put it into park, and raced into Miley's house.

"Where's Miley?" Lilly gasped when she saw Mr. Stewart.

"She's upstairs, and you left your car on!" he yelled after her as soon as she took off. "Well, I guess I'll have to go turn it off myself," he muttered to himself.

The blonde dashed up the stairs and turned towards Miley's room, bursting through the door to see the brunette lying on the bed, tears streaming down her face and sobs wracking her body. She sat down on the bed, pulling Miley into her arms and rocking her back and forth, unable to bear seeing her in any type of pain. "Shhh, it's okay," she whispered, rubbing comforting circles on her back. "It's gonna be okay."

But even as she held Miley, she could feel her heart start to pound, hear her pulse in her ears, and her breathing started to get short and shallow. Closing her eyes, she tried to focus on the fact that Miley was hurting, but the butterflies were erupting in her stomach, tingles travelling all over her body, and her face getting flushed. She was suddenly aware that Miley had pulled away from her and was now staring at her.

"What's wrong that I'm making you act like this?" Miley whispered, tears still streaming down her face. "What have I done?"

"You exist," Lilly whispered, backing away from Miley as she stared into her eyes. "I…I don't know why…every time I see you, it gets harder to breathe and I can't stop staring at you. My heart starts beating faster and my face gets red. My whole body tingles and the palms of my hands get all sweaty, like I'm nervous. And when you're talking, I can't hear anything except for your voice, and when you sing…it's like we're the only people on the planet and you're singing right to me."

She blushed even redder as she continued. "When you touch me, I feel like my whole body is on fire and I…I can't help wanting to grab your hand, your arm, touch your face, your shoulder, your leg, keep some part of you in contact with me. And when you let go, it feels like someone just dumped a bucket of ice cold water all over me. When I'm not with you, I'm always thinking about you, wishing that I _was_ with you, and when I _am_ with you, I'm thinking about how I wish I could spend even more time with you."

Standing up, she backed away from Miley. "Look, I understand if you don't want to talk to me again after I say this, but I think that I love you. I think I have for a long time. Because when I'm with you, I'm always happier than when I'm with anyone else. And I can never stop thinking about you and…I should just stop talking and leave now."

Lilly turned to leave.

"You never texted me."

Turning around, Lilly looked at the brunette to see that she still had tears streaming down her face and her eyes were bloodshot from crying so much. "What?" she asked.

"You told me that as soon as you got home, you would text me to let me know that you were safe," Miley whispered. "I waited for half an hour before I texted you. You never texted back. I kept calling and calling and calling, but it just rang and rang and rang and went to your voicemail. All these pictures kept going through my head. You lying on the road in a puddle of blood because you had been hit by a car. Getting kidnapped and stuffed into the backseat of a car. Someone putting a gun to your head and pulling the trigger. I…Lilly, I can't live without you."

"I'm so sorry," Lilly whispered. "I just…as soon as I got home, I pretty much collapsed on my bed and fell asleep crying. It slipped my mind, I completely forgot."

"Why do you think I've been trying to spend so much time with you recently?" Miley whispered, stepping around the bed and walking slowly towards Lilly. "I don't know how many boys I've turned down, how many times I've told Oliver that I just wanted to spend time with you, how many times I've turned down interviews, charity events, and concerts for Hannah Montana just because I wanted to spend more time with you. I thought it was obvious. And all this time it's gone right over your head."

"Wait, what are you saying?" Lilly asked, confused, a single spark of hope igniting in her heart. Maybe there was still a chance of saving her friendship with Miley and maybe even turning it into a relationship.

"Is it really not obvious?" Miley wailed. "What do I have to do to make you see?"

"See what?" Lilly asked, getting frustrated.

Miley crossed the short distance between them with two quick steps and pressed her lips against Lilly's, wrapping her arms around her neck. Lilly froze in shock, but quickly recovered, wrapping her arms around Miley's waist, placing her hands on the brunette's back as she responded eagerly. They eventually had to pull away, gasping for air as they stared into each other's eyes.

"How long?" Lilly whispered.

"Months, now," Miley said softly. "And you?"

"The same," Lilly whispered, softly kissing the corner of her mouth, moving slowly down to her chin, kissing along her jaw line and to her ear. "You're so beautiful," she murmured. "I don't deserve you."

"We need to talk," Miley said quietly, and she pulled away from Lilly, grabbing her hand and drawing her down to sit on the bed next to her. "I…I can't just…randomly jump into this. There needs to be…some form of a relationship. And I don't want to be friends with benefits. I like you a lot more than that and I don't think I could ever stand seeing you with someone else. Every time I've seen you with another boy, or even another girl, other than Oliver in the past few months, I felt like walking over and slapping whoever it was you were talking to and then dragging you away and kissing you."

"But you didn't," Lilly said.

"Because I was afraid," Miley said softly, looking down at her lap. "I was so afraid that you wouldn't feel the same way and that you wouldn't want to be friends with me anymore. So I decided it's better to be just friends and just crush on you for my whole life than tell you and have you leave me alone for the rest of my life. I've never liked anyone more than I like you."

"I wish that we had both had the courage to tell each other how we felt earlier because we would have had so much more time together," Lilly whispered, taking Miley's hands in her own and kissing them gently. "And I felt the exact same way when I saw you with other boys. I've always felt that way. When you dated a boy, I always wanted you to break up with him so we could spend more time together. Because I didn't want to hurt your feelings, I just threw myself into random relationships to try to distract myself. It sort of worked at the time, but now that I look back, I can see that I was even more miserable in those relationships than I was just watching you with your boyfriend at the time."

"Well, we both know better now," Miley said, smiling as Lilly wiped a tear away with the tip of her finger. "Would you…would you want to be my girlfriend?"

"I was just going to ask you the same question," Lilly whispered. "Of course I will." She leaned forward, giving Miley a chaste kiss on the lips and pulling away quickly. "Are you going to tell your dad?"

Miley bit her lip nervously. "I don't know," she whispered. "I think he deserves to know since he's my dad and all, but I don't know if he'll approve of our relationship. How about you, are you going to tell your mom?"

Lilly blushed. "She sort of already knows," she whispered, looking away in embarrassment. "She managed to get it out of my while I was asleep. You know how I can have conversations with people in my sleep. Whenever I don't tell her something, she'll just wait until I fall asleep and get it out of me then. It's horrible because whenever I lie to her, she ends up finding out the truth anyways."

"And she doesn't care that you…you like girls?" Miley asked.

"No, because I don't like girls," Lilly whispered, glancing over to see a shocked and hurt expression on Miley's face. "I only like one girl," she whispered, and Miley blushed, smiling happily. "And I think that you should tell your dad. I'll be right there with you if you want and I'll stand with you no matter what happens. Even if your dad gets really mad and tells me to get out of the house."

"I don't think that'll happen," Miley whispered. "He really likes you. You're already like a second daughter to him. The more I think about this, the more I think that he'll be perfectly fine with it. I mean, you already eat over here at least three times a week and he's sees you every day. This just means that he'll see you a bit more and he'd love to have you around more often. He even told me that if…if you ever got kicked out of your house or something, he'd be more than willing to let you move in with us."

"That's not true," Mr. Stewart said, walking into the room. "I didn't exactly say it like that. I said that if anything happened and Lilly needed a place to stay then she would be more than welcome to move in with us until everything got situated. Or until she graduated from high school and headed off to college."

"Dad! How long have you been listening?" Miley asked, quickly scooting away from Lilly and standing up, her face getting red as she yelled at her father.

"I just heard that last part," Mr. Stewart said, confused. "What're you two talking about up here? Does this have to do with boys again?"

"Sort of," Lilly said cautiously, also standing up and glancing over at Miley. "Mr. S, there's something we need to tell you. Just…promise that you won't freak out at us when you hear."

"Is one of you pregnant?" Mr. Stewart asked, his eyes getting wide. "Miley, how many times have I told you to be careful when you finally decide to have sex and use protection? And Lilly, I'm sure your mother has had this talk with you before, more times than one, I'm sure."

"Dad!" Miley yelled, getting even redder.

"Actually, Mr. Stewart, it's kind of the opposite of that," Lilly said, stepping closer to Miley and putting an arm around her waist. "You see, Miley and I are together. We're dating."

Mr. Stewart looked between Miley and Lilly for several seconds before a grin stretched over his face. "Thank the Lord, finally!" he yelled. "Do you know how long Jackson and I have been watching the two of you breaking each other's hearts and then fixing them and then stomping all over them again? And Oliver, poor Oliver, has been trying to get the two of you together ever since he and Lilly broke up. Miles, I'm gonna have to call your grandmother in Tennessee and tell her that you're finally with Lilly, and then I can call Jackson…" He walked out of the room, naming everyone he was going to call as Miley looked at Lilly with wide eyes.

"I can honestly say that I never expected him to react like that," Miley said seriously.

"Well, at least he's not screaming at me to get out of his house and threatening to take the shotgun off the wall of his bedroom and chase me down the road," Lilly said optimistically.

"But every Stewart in the country will be knocking down our front door by tomorrow morning wanting to meet you," Miley said. "And by Monday, it'll be all over the school because my dad is gonna call Oliver and you know how well Oliver keeps secrets like this."

"Do you want to keep our relationship a secret?" Lilly whispered, drawing Miley closer to her.

"No, no, no, it's just…I didn't know if you wanted to keep our relationship a secret," Miley said. "I never, ever want to hide our relationship, no matter what. When Hannah and Lola see each other again, Hannah will definitely be asking Lola to be her girlfriend."

"What if Lola wants to ask Hannah first?" Lilly asked, grinning.

"Then Lola's going to have to live," Miley said.

"Lola's going to have to propose, then," Lilly said, shocking Miley. "Once we graduate from high school and maybe even after we graduate from college, too," Lilly said quickly, afraid that she had gone too far in her joking.

"I just…hadn't thought of that yet," Miley whispered, leaning into Lilly and sighing in contentment as the blonde wrapped her arms around her. "You know, this is what I've been dreaming of for the past few months. The perfect moments like this."

"Me too," Lilly whispered, resting her chin on the top of Miley's head.

* * *

_Lilly sat on the floor of Miley's bedroom, tears streaming down her face as she unfolded Miley's letter with shaking hands. Wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her shirt, she started to read the letter to herself. "Dear Lilly…" she whispered._

_**Well, there you go, Chapter One, the second installment of **_**Remembering Miley.**_** Just giving you guys a sort of warning, well, not really a warning, but more of a heads up: I'm going to be dropping hints in the story about how Miley dies. If you didn't know that she dies, I'm sorry for spoiling this, but I tried to make that apparent in the prologue. So, I would be interested in hearing your theories. I didn't put any clues in this particular chapter, but if you have any theories, I would still be interested in hearing them. Just put it in your review!**_

_**While we're on the topic of reviews, I would like to thank Sophi20, ChannyFan4ever, and JustAnotherSlowGoodbye for reviewing. I really appreciate it when you guys review, and if you can, please try to put stuff in your reviews that I can use, like constructive criticism, advice, and ideas. I don't mind just hearing that you like the story, but I really appreciate when people tell me what I can do better. And if you don't like the story, feel free to tell me. Just try to be at least halfway nice about it. Thank you all so much for reading this and I'll update as soon as I can.**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	3. Chapter Two: All the Time in the World

_**Here's the next chapter.**_

"You tell him," Miley whispered urgently as they sat down at a table by Rico's snack shack, smoothies clutched tightly in their hands. Oliver was standing at the snack shack arguing with Rico about the prices of the nachos while his new employee, Mark, stood back and watched helplessly. Lilly felt bad for the poor guy, he hadn't known what he was getting into and Jackson had been more than happy to quit because of college.

"No, you tell him," Lilly shot back, glancing back away from the snack shack and taking a long slurp out of her strawberry smoothie.

"It was your idea," Miley said, looking over at Oliver worriedly. "You tell him."

"I came up with the idea, so you can tell him," Lilly said.

"Does that even make sense?" Miley asked, scrunching up her eyebrows in confusion.

"To me it does," Lilly said, shrugging her shoulders and taking another slurp out of her smoothie.

"Of course it does," Miley said, rolling her eyes. "Just tell him."

"Tell me what?"

They both looked up see Oliver standing above them, two orders of nachos held in his hands. He set them down and sat down in a third chair, looking expectantly from Miley to Lilly as he picked a nacho up from one of the containers, dipped it in cheese, and proceeded to stuff it in his mouth.

"Who said that we were talking about you?" Lilly shot back, grabbing one of the containers of nachos and pulling it towards her and Miley. "And don't touch our nachos; I don't want all of your germs all over them."

"But who else would you be talking about?" Oliver asked, chomping down on the second half of his nachos, the first half already gone.

"We were just…talking about boys!" Miley said.

"You were?" Oliver asked, raising his eyebrows.

"We were?" Lilly asked in a small voice.

"Yes, we were," Miley said firmly. "I was just saying how cute I thought Mark and Lilly was telling me that I should come and ask him to sit with us on his break."

Lilly stood up abruptly, tears in her eyes as she accidentally knocked her smoothie over, spilling the red liquid all over the table. She ran away from the table, leaving a confused Oliver and a stunned Miley behind. People stared as her as she ran up the beach, tears streaming down her face, until she finally collapsed on an abandoned strip of sand far enough away from the crowded areas that no one would see that she was there unless that person was looking for her specifically.

There were quick footsteps and loud breathing and Lilly was aware that someone had just run up to her and was now trying to catch her breath. "Lilly."

She didn't respond.

"Lilly, look, I'm sorry, I…I wasn't thinking and I didn't realize it would have that much of an effect on you."

The blonde still didn't respond.

"Look, Lilly, I love you and I'll go tell Oliver that we're dating. Heck, I'll announce it to the whole beach if you'll just look at me."

Lilly turned, looking at Miley with tear-filled eyes. "Are you really so ashamed of me that you'll do anything to hide our relationship?" she whispered.

"No, Lilly…" Miley started.

"Miley, I like you," Lilly said. "I really, really like you, but…but if this is how it's going to be, you pretending that…that we aren't something, even when we're just around our best friends or our family then…then I think we should just stay friends. Because I like you too much and if I see you doing that, or hear you doing that, then it's going to hurt me. And I don't want to get hurt. I've been hurt so much…I can't stand it one more time."

"What are you talking about?" Miley asked in confusion.

"Every single time I saw you with a boy, every single time you talked about boys, every single time you were staring at boys, even when boys were staring at you, I felt…I felt like someone was cutting my heart out as slowly as they possibly could," Lilly said, tears in her eyes. "I've been hoping, dreaming, wishing that you would look at me and see that I was hurting, that I didn't want the boys you were setting me up with, but just you. And then you admit to me that…that was all fake. That you love me. Then you…you pretend like it never happened. Do you know how much that hurts?"

"Lilly, I'm sorry," Miley said, sitting down next to Lilly. "I…I honestly didn't know that it would upset you. If I had known, I would have just told Oliver to wait until we were somewhere private. I just…feel really uncomfortable with telling him something like this in a public place cause I don't want him freaking out on us and everyone looking at us weird and I…I didn't want you getting upset."

"Why didn't you just do that then?" Lilly asked. "I mean, I would have been a little upset, but once you explained to me, I would have been totally fine."

"I wasn't thinking," Miley said.

"We need to talk stuff out together if we're going to make this a lasting relationship," Lilly said. "Unless…unless you don't want a lasting relationship."

Miley looked at Lilly with wide eyes. "No, Lilly, don't you dare let yourself think that," she said, cupping Lilly's face gently in her hands and tilting her head up so they were looking in each other's eyes. "Don't think that at all. Of course I want a lasting relationship. Don't think that I wouldn't want that for us."

"I just…I'm just really stressed out because of this," Lilly whispered, bowing her head and leaning her forehead on Miley's shoulder. "I'm so afraid that if people start teasing, we'll grow apart and all of this will have been for nothing."

"You have nothing to be afraid of," Miley whispered, wrapping her arms around the blonde's shivering body. "Hey, hey, it's going to be okay. How about we head back to my house, get changed into something warmer, then invite Oliver over for a movie night? We can tell him then, okay?"

Lilly nodded into Miley's shoulder and eventually pulled herself away, giving the brunette a chaste kiss on the cheek. "Thank you," she whispered. She stood up and reached down to help Miley up and leaned into her touch as they walked up the beach towards Miley's house.

* * *

"There's something you two are going to tell me," Oliver said almost conversationally as they all sat down on the couch in front of Miley's TV. "I can tell, the way you two are looking at each other every few seconds. You might as well tell me now and get it over with."

Miley and Lilly looked at each other in surprise. "Oliver, we…you have to promise that you won't get mad," Lilly said quietly.

"Why would I get mad at you?" Oliver asked.

"We're dating," Miley said quickly.

Oliver stared at them for a moment. "And?" he asked, obviously missing what Miley was saying. "You guys date all the time, this isn't news. Is that what you were planning this whole afternoon when Lilly ran off? Do both of you like Mark or something?"

"No, Oliver, we're dating each other," Lilly said. "We're…we're gay."

The bowl of popcorn dropped from his hands onto his lap, rolling down his legs to crash to the floor, glass shattering and buttered popcorn scattering across the carpet. His eyes were wide and suddenly he was standing up, running to the door, and rushing outside. Lilly immediately looked down at the shattered bowl and scrambled to her knees, trying to gather the shards of sharp glass and the pieces of popcorn. Tears started to stream down her face and she grabbed one of the pieces of glass tightly, the shard cutting into her skin.

"Lilly, Lilly, stop," Miley said, immediately kneeling next to her and pulling her away from the mess. "Don't do this. Here, open your hand." She gently pried Lilly's hand open, carefully taking the piece of glass away from her and setting it on the nearby coffee table. Lilly started to sob and Miley gathered her up in her arms, picking her up and carrying her up the stairs to the bathroom where she set her on the counter.

"No, this is all my fault, I need to go clean that up," Lilly sobbed, tears streaming down her face. "I need…"

"What you need is to get your hand cleaned up so you don't bleed to death," Miley said, taking a firm, but gentle, hold of her wrist and pulling Lilly's hand toward her. "Look at me, honey. Lilly, look at me." The blonde stopped crying and stared into Miley's eyes. "You need to calm down and take a deep breath. You're getting worked up. It's been a stressful day. We can relax after I get your hand bandaged up, you can rest for a few moments while I get some things straightened out, then we can watch our movie, okay?"

Lilly nodded and watched as Miley got a first aid kit out, gently cleaning her hand off and bandaging it tightly. She could feel the blood throbbing through her hand but, surprisingly, there was no pain. Miley helped her get down off the counter and she leaned into the brunette. "I feel so weak," she whispered. "Usually I can just pretend stuff like this doesn't bother me, but…I just don't have any control over my emotions today. It's like…whenever I'm around you, I get so excited and happy and I want you to be excited and happy, too, and if something goes wrong…it's my fault that you aren't as happy as you could be."

"This isn't your fault," Miley whispered, kissing her gently on the nose. "You aren't the one who reacted badly. Okay, maybe we could have told him a little better, and maybe you didn't have to stick a shard of broken glass halfway through your hand, but Oliver didn't need to run out of the room like that. You aren't responsible for how he reacts to the two of us dating."

"I'm sorry, I just…I feel like I don't have much time left with you," Lilly whispered.

Miley smiled slightly. "We have all the time in the world."

* * *

_Lilly wiped the tears from her eyes as the words on the paper blurred. "You were right," she read, choking back a sob. "We didn't have all the time in the world."_

_**Hope you liked it! Thanks for the reviews from karleen3863 and Sophi20. I really appreciate you guys telling me what you think. You have no idea what this means to me. Really, people, review. I need to get reviews so I know what people think about the story and what I can do to improve it. I really value everyone's input, so please REVIEW!!!! Thanks!**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	4. Chapter Three: Worry

_**Sorry I haven't updated. Explanations at the bottom. Enjoy!!!**_

Lilly smiled down at Miley, softly stroking the brunette's hair. They had gone to the beach to watch the sunset and then watch the stars blink into existence and Miley had ended up falling asleep. Not that Lilly minded at all. She loved watching her beautiful girlfriend dream. Sometimes she would talk in her sleep or a smile would flicker across her face. Other times, her face would screw up as if she was in pain. These were the times when Lilly would wake the brunette up and cradle her in her arms until she calmed down.

At this moment, there was a soft smile on Miley's face and she snuggled into Lilly's side, muttering something unintelligible. The blonde pulled her close, staring out at the ocean and watching the waves crash on the shore. So much had happened in the last couple weeks. She had come to terms with her feelings for Miley, started dating her, come out to Miley's dad, and told Oliver that she and Miley were dating. It was almost too much to handle in such a short time.

She would have been perfectly fine with everything that had happened had Oliver not reacted in the way he had. While she loved Miley, she missed the doughnut. Sometimes it was nice to be able to talk about stuff with someone other than her girlfriend, and she wasn't really able to do that, now, because the only friend who knew she was dating Miley was Oliver, and he was avoiding her. Lilly had called him several times in the past couple days, but it always when to his voicemail. And when she saw him in school, he managed to make himself disappear.

Miley shifted next to her and Lilly looked down worriedly, seeing a look of intense pain on the brunette's face. She gently woke her up and Miley sat up quickly, clutching at her head.

"What's wrong?" Lilly asked worriedly.

"I just got this really bad headache," Miley whimpered.

"Do you want me to…?"

The brunette suddenly leaned away from Lilly, throwing up in the sand. Lilly's eyes widened and she quickly pulled Miley's hair back out of her face, rubbing her back comfortingly. Miley wiped her mouth on her sleeve and leaned into Lilly, who wrapped her arms around the brunette, pulling her close as she started crying.

"Maybe we should head back to your house," Lilly whispered. "Can you stand up or do you still feel sick?"

"I…I just feel really dizzy and my head hurts," Miley whimpered.

"Here, I'll carry you," Lilly said gently, getting to her knees and lifting Miley in her arms. She slowly got to her feet and took a few steps forward. "Tell me if you feel like you're going to be sick again so we can stop."

Miley moaned her acknowledgement as she buried her face in Lilly's shoulder and the blonde started walking forward. They stopped twice so Lilly could set Miley down and pull her hair back out of her face as she threw up. Finally, they got to Miley's house where Lilly set her down on the couch and went to get Mr. Stewart out of the garage where he was working on an old, beat-up car he had bought really cheap.

"Mr. Stewart, Miley isn't feeling good," Lilly said as he wiped his hands on an old rag and walked towards her. "She threw up three times and she has a headache and feels dizzy. I wasn't sure what to do, so I carried her back here and put her on the couch."

He looked worried and jogged out of the garage and into the living room. Miley was lying on the couch in the same position that Lilly had set her down in. There was a pained expression on her face and she was holding her head in her hands. Mr. Stewart knelt next to her head and gently pried her hands away from her face, placing the back of his hand on her forehead. After a few moments, he shook his head. "It doesn't feel like she has a fever," he said, a confused expression on his face. "Lilly can I talk to you in the other room?"

Lilly nodded, giving Miley a quick kiss on the forehead, and followed Mr. Stewart into the kitchen. He opened the fridge, pulling out a ginger ale, and popped the can open. She watched as he fumbled through the cabinets to get a glass. "Is there something that you and Miley aren't telling me?" he asked when he got the glass, turning to the counter where he had set the ginger ale down and pouring the drink into the glass.

"No," Lilly said, scrunching her face up in confusion.

"Because this has been happening for the past week," Mr. Stewart said, opening drawers and searching through them. "Did she fall asleep on the beach?"

"Yeah, why?" Lilly asked.

"Every time she wakes up, she throws up," Mr. Stewart said. "And she gets these headaches frequently. Has she complained about them in school?"

"This is the first time that she's ever complained about a headache to me," Lilly said, watching as he pulled a straw out of the drawer he was searching through and stuck it in the glass of ginger ale. Going to the cabinet above the sink, he pulled out a bottle of Advil and set it down on the counter. "And I didn't know that she got sick every morning. She didn't say anything about that to me."

Mr. Stewart leaned on the counter, looking down as a weary expression crossed over his face. He looked up at Lilly. "She…she hasn't had sex before, has she?" he asked. "I don't want to ask her because whenever I've asked her before she gets…defensive. I thought that since you two've been best friends for so long and you're dating now, she would tell you."

"Why would you…?" Lilly started, trailing off. Then it started making sense. The throwing up, random mood swings that had been happening lately, headaches…. "You don't think she would cheat on me, do you?" she whispered. "She…she wouldn't be going behind my back and having sex? She…she _can't_ be pregnant."

"I don't think Miley would do that to you, no," Mr. Stewart said. "But before, when she was dating that boy, what was his name? Brian, right? Well, he could have…pressured her into doing something with him that she didn't want to do."

"She would have told me," Lilly said confidently.

"Daddy? Lilly? What are you talking about?" Miley moaned.

Mr. Stewart picked up the glass and the bottle of Advil and walked over to Miley, Lilly following close behind. He set the glass and bottle down on the coffee table and helped the brunette sit up, giving her the glass and shaking three pills out of the bottle. She took the pills, putting them in her mouth and swallowing them as she sipped the ginger ale out of the glass through the straw. "I'm gonna go call the doctor and see if I can get an appointment in," he said.

He walked out of the room and up the stairs towards his bedroom.

"Wait, the doctor's office isn't going to be open this late," Miley said after a moment.

"Can…can I ask you a question?" Lilly said, and Miley nodded, wincing in pain and putting a hand to her head. "Have you…haveyouhadsexbefore?"

Miley stared at her for a moment. "What?" she asked.

"Have…have you…had sex before?" Lilly asked a little more slowly, looking away as she flushed from embarrassment.

"No, I would have told you," Miley said. "Why?"

"Well, um, your dad…he…he thinks Brian, you know, you're last boyfriend, might have forced you to do something and…and that you're pregnant," Lilly whispered, her face getting even redder. "I…I told him that…that…"

"I would never, ever do that," Miley said, sitting up straighter. She winced again and Lilly looked at her with a concerned expression on her face. "You know that, Lilly. And I would tell you if something like that happened. You're my best friend, my girlfriend. I tell you everything."

Lilly sighed in relief. "Just making sure," she whispered. "But…but why haven't you told me about you throwing up all this week? Or the headaches? Have you been getting really dizzy, too?"

The brunette looked away guiltily. "I didn't want you to worry," she murmured.

"And you think that I won't worry when you wake up on the beach with a headache, puke you guts out _three times_, and can't stand up by yourself because you're too dizzy?" Lilly asked almost angrily. Her voice rose higher and higher and Miley winced in pain again. The blonde softened her tone and took Miley's hand in her own. "I love you, Miley, and I can't help but worry about you when stuff like that happens. You would do the same for me."

"Is…is Daddy worried, too?" she whispered, looking up at Lilly with tears in her eyes.

Lilly sighed. "Of course he is, he's your dad," Lilly whispered, gently wiping away the brunette's tears with her thumb. "It's his job to worry about you. Now, if he _wasn't_ worried about you…that wouldn't be a good thing. Trust me."

Like Lilly's father. He hadn't given a damn, so he had just packed up and left, not caring that her mother was practically on her knees begging him to stay, not caring that Lilly was watching everything from the stairs, peeking over the railing as she listened to him telling her mother how he doesn't care because he doesn't love her or Lilly and he never did and never would. No, he didn't care that every night for the next two years, Lilly would like awake at night waiting for him to come home and apologize…

"I'm sorry," Miley murmured, and Lilly was snapped out of her thoughts. "I…I didn't mean to bring up a sore topic."

"Hey, it's okay, my dad's a jerk," Lilly said lightly. "I still have people who love me, though."

"The doctor's office is closed, so I'm going to call in the morning," Mr. Stewart said, coming down the stairs.

"Tomorrow's Saturday."

He sighed, rubbing his temples. "Monday, then," he said. "But then again, if you aren't better by then, I might have to call a specialist."

"I'll be better by tomorrow morning," Miley said. "I'm already feeling better, okay?"

Mr. Stewart looked at her doubtfully, but just nodded. Lilly ran to get the garbage can as Miley clutched her stomach, getting it there just as the brunette threw up.

_**Okay, there aren't any excuses for not updating. I'm really, really, really, really sorry. And I'll try not to let it happen again (keyword: try). But I'm focusing on **_**Forgiving and Forgetting**_** right now, so updates might be a little less frequent on this story. I'll try to get one chapter up every week, but it might end up being every two weeks. Once again, I'm sorry.**_

_**Thank you for the reviews from karleen3863, JustAnotherSlowGoodbye, Lovergirl242, Sophi20, and AlvinFan07. Please continue to REVIEW and I'll see if I can update at least once a week. Once again, I'm sorry for the delay and thank you for sticking with me.**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	5. Chapter Four: Worse

_**Here's the next chapter.**_

"Hey, Mr. Stewart, how's Miley?" Lilly asked as she walked into the Stewart's kitchen. It was Monday morning and she was desperately hoping that her girlfriend felt better. She had spent all of her time at Miley's house over the weekend lounging on the couch with the brunette, sitting with her by the toilet when she threw up, and stroking her hair softly when she was asleep. Miley hadn't stopped throwing up and her headaches only seemed to get worse with every passing day.

"I'm calling the doctor's office at eight," he sighed, frying some bacon in a frying pan on the stove. "She hasn't gotten any better. I found her in her bathroom this morning throwing up again. I'm afraid that this is something worse than…I'm just worried about her. Do you wanna go up to her room and check on her? Ask her if she wants something to eat. And you're more than welcome to have breakfast, as well, Lilly."

"Thanks, Mr. S," Lilly said, setting her book bag down on a chair and heading up to Miley's room. The door was slightly cracked open and Lilly gently pushed it all the way open to see the brunette sitting on her bed facing her window. Her hair was up in a messy bun and she was still dressed in her pajamas.

"Miles?" Lilly whispered.

The brunette grunted in response and didn't turn. Lilly closed the door softly behind her and went over to sit down next to Miley. She put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

"How're you feeling?" she asked.

"I don't know," Miley said honestly. "I…my dad won't let me go to school today. He said that he's going to call the doctor and get me an appointment. My Hannah concert was cancelled over the weekend and he's cancelling everything for this whole week. This is ruining everything."

"Your dad is just worried about you," Lilly said, rubbing Miley's arm comfortingly. "And it wouldn't be a really good idea if Hannah Montana started throwing up in the middle of her concert, would it? Maybe it's good that you take a short break from her. You've been going really hard for the past couple weeks, between school, Hannah, and going out with me. Maybe we should just stay in this week and not do anything."

"You'll skip school for me?" Miley asked hopefully.

Lilly winced. "I wasn't exactly saying _that_," she said carefully. "Not that I wouldn't love to skip school, but my mom wouldn't fly for that, I have a math test today, and I could get in really big trouble for skipping."

Miley sighed and looked away. "That's what I thought," she muttered.

"Hey, hey, don't look like that," Lilly said, turning her head gently so they were facing each other. She kissed the brunette lightly on the nose. "I would totally love to skip school, but I can't. But, I will stop by after school today and we can do homework today and then maybe watch a movie or something…"

"I don't want to watch a movie," Miley said, tears starting to leak out of the corners of her eyes. "I want to go to school and be with you all day, then come back here and do our homework, then go to the beach and hang out for the rest of the day. I want to go to my Hannah concert. I don't want to be sick. Lilly, I don't want to be sick."

"That's why your dad's taking you to the doctor," Lilly said. "Please don't give him a hard time, okay? For me? I want you to get better and I know you want to get better. Just…just don't make this any worse than you have to."

"Okay," Miley whispered. "For you." She leaned her head on Lilly's shoulder and the blonde kissed her hair gently.

* * *

Lilly tentatively knocked on the Stewart's front door, not knowing what she should expect when it opened. Normally, she wouldn't be so nervous, but Miley hadn't texted her since before her doctor's appointment that morning and she hadn't answered her phone when Lilly had called her…three times. The blonde had spent all day worrying about the brunette, but she couldn't do anything until school let out. And the moment the bell rang, she was racing for her locker so she could get to Miley's house as quickly as possible.

The door opened to reveal Jackson standing in the doorway, an exhausted look on his face. "Hey, Lilly, come on in," he said, stepping aside so she could walk in. "Here, I'll take your book bag and put it in Miley's room. Dad and Miley aren't back from the doctor's appointment yet. They should be done in half an hour, though, so you can just chill here until they get back."

"Do you know what's going on?" Lilly asked, following Jackson into the living room and waiting for his reply as he jogged up the stairs to Miley's room and came back down.

"Dad called me this morning and told me that if I could take any time off school, now would be a good time," Jackson sighed, sitting down on the couch in front of the TV and leaning back tiredly. "I packed up some clothes, all my books, and headed straight here. I got here just when they were about to leave. They've been gone all day, though, and Dad just called to tell me that they were almost finished."

"What…what do you think is wrong?" Lilly asked, sitting down next to him. Jackson was going to UCLA for pre-med and whenever she saw him, he always boasted about his knowledge in the medical field.

Jackson closed his eyes and shook his head. "I honestly have no idea," he said. "All I can think of was when…never mind. I just don't know, but I hope it's nothing serious. Miles would never want to give up Hannah, especially for something like this. Something that she can't control."

"Wait, think of what?" Lilly asked quickly.

"Nothing, nothing," Jackson said. There was the sound of a car in the driveway and he stood up. "It sounds like they're home."

He walked over to the door and Lilly quickly stood up, walking after him. The door opened and Mr. Stewart walked in, one arm supporting Miley as they both slowly walked forward. Lilly rushed forward, concern showing in her eyes, and put a supporting arm around her girlfriend's waist. The three of them slowly made their way to the couch and Lilly helped Miley sit down, sitting next to her and holding her as the brunette leaned into her.

"How did it go?" Jackson asked.

Mr. Stewart sighed. "The doctor doesn't know what's wrong," he said, rubbing her temple wearily. "I've scheduled an appointment with a specialist at the hospital. It's at two o'clock tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully they'll be able to find whatever it is and give us something to help."

"Daddy, I'm not feeling good," Miley moaned.

"Lilly, could you…?" Mr. Stewart started.

"Yeah, I'll go ahead and take her up to her room," Lilly said. She stood up and gently lifted Miley into her arms. Miley buried her face in Lilly's shoulder and the blonde carefully carried her up the stairs and into her room.

"I love you," Lilly whispered, brushing her lips against Miley's forehead as she set her down on her bed. Miley smiled at her drowsily and her eyes fluttered shut. And Lilly couldn't help but feel that this was all a lot worse than any of them could have imagined.

_**Thank you all for sticking with this story. And thank you for the reviews from: JustAnotherSlowGoodbye, DreamBigToFallHard, Sophi20, ScorpioP, musicisinmysoul, and AlvinFan07. I really appreciate you guys taking the time to review. And please continue to do so. The next chapter will be up within the next two weeks. Thank you all again.**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	6. Chapter Five: One Step Forward, Two Back

_**Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!!!**_

Slamming her locker shut, Lilly hoisted her books on her hip and started towards her first class. She had begged her mom to let her skip school and go to the hospital with Miley, but her mom made her go to school, saying that she couldn't afford to miss school. After a screaming match, Lilly finally agreed to go to school under the threat that if she didn't, then she would be grounded for two weeks.

"Lilly!"

The blonde turned to see Oliver jogging down the hall towards her. She clenched her jaw and quickened her pace, turning her back on the boy. She was not in the mood to deal with him at that moment and she didn't want to create a scene in the middle of the hallway.

"Come on, Lilly, wait up for me!" Oliver yelled, catching up to her and walking next to her. "Look, I'm sorry for what I did. You…you shocked me, okay?"

"I don't want to talk about this right now," Lilly said angrily.

"Please, Lilly, I miss my best friend," Oliver begged.

"Not in the mood, Oliver."

"Where's Miley?" he asked.

"I told you that I'm not in the mood."

"Did you…did you guys break up?" Oliver whispered.

"Leave me alone!" Lilly screamed.

The hall went completely silent as everyone stopped their conversations to turn and stare at Lilly and Oliver. Oliver was staring at her with his mouth gaping wide open. Tears started to stream down her face as her books dropped to the floor. She got down on her hands and knees, gathering her fallen papers in a pile and stacking her books haphazardly in the middle of the hallway. No one made a move to help her as she stood up again, running down the hall and out of the school.

Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she keyed in Miley's speed dial number and pressed the phone to her ear, praying for the brunette to pick up. It rang four times before it went to her voicemail. Lilly snapped her phone shut and dropped it on the ground, her knees buckling under her as she fell to the grass, tears streaming down her face.

"Lilly."

She looked up to see that Oliver had followed her and that he had dropped to his knees on the ground next to her. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close and holding her as she tried to hold back her sobs. Oliver rocked her back and forth, whispering soothing sounds in her ear as she started to calm down.

"What's wrong?" he whispered.

"It's…it's Miley," Lilly whimpered, burying her face in Oliver's shoulder.

"What happened?"

"She's sick," Lilly cried. "We don't know what's wrong. She went to the doctor's yesterday and she's going to the hospital today for an appointment with some specialist or something. I…I can't lose her, Oliver. She's my everything."

"You really love her, don't you?" Oliver asked softly.

Lilly nodded and pulled back from Oliver. She wiped her face with her sleeve. "Why are you mad that me and Miley are together?" she asked.

"I'm not mad that the two of you are together," he said quietly, looking away. "It's just…God, this is so hard to explain. Um, okay, please don't get mad at me, okay? This is going to seem really stupid, but…I don't know why it got me so upset, but it just did. You two have been dancing around each other for years, okay? And I've been waiting for you two to get together for a while now. Then we started dating and I thought…maybe that we were meant to be together, you know? After a few months, we break up and I try to get you two together, and when you finally get together…I'm jealous, okay? I'm jealous of Miley."

"Jealous?" Lilly whispered.

"Lilly, you're my best friend, but…I like you," he admitted, blushing. "I've liked you for a long time, okay? Since before we dated, and I've liked you ever since. I know I'm just being delusional because you're with Miley and it's obvious that you two really like each other, but…I'm jealous. And once you guys come out to the school, do you know what that will do to my reputation? I'll be accused of turning you gay! No girl will want to date me after that."

The blonde laughed. "Of course you would think like that," she said with a smile.

Oliver grinned. "Just trying to make you laugh," he whispered. "I've really missed you, Lilly. You're my best friend and I would never, ever try to do anything to hurt you. If you want to be with Miley, I'm going to respect that and support you guys. And I'll be right here by your side no matter what. I promise."

"Thanks, Oliver," Lilly whispered, leaning into him as he wrapped his arms around her again.

"No problem," he whispered. "Now how about we get to class? I don't think either of our parents would be happy if they found out that we skipped today. Then I can give you a ride to Miley's house or to the hospital after school."

Lilly nodded and Oliver stood up, extending a hand to haul her to her feet. He looped an arm around her shoulders and they walked back into the school side-by-side.

* * *

"Do you wanna come in with me?" Lilly asked as Oliver pulled up in front of Miley's house. She unbuckled her seatbelt and reached for her book bag in the backseat.

"I'll stop by later," he said. "It'd probably be better if you talked to her first, if you know what I mean. She's probably not feeling good and her visit to the hospital probably hasn't helped much. They don't do much for you at the hospital on your first visit. Usually just slap a cast on a random part of your body, have you sign papers not to sue them, and throw you out the front door."

Lilly laughed. "Thanks, Oliver," she said, giving him a one-armed hug. "You always know what to say to make me feel better. I'll call you later, okay?"

"Yup, and tell Miley to feel better," Oliver said as Lilly opened her door and got out. She closed the door behind her and watched as Oliver drove away before turning to Miley's house and trudging up to the front door. She twisted the doorknob and slowly opened it, sticking her head inside. Everything was quiet, which most likely meant that Miley and Mr. Stewart weren't home yet and Jackson was still at school or on his way home. But the front door was unlocked, so that meant that _someone_ was home.

"Hello?" Lilly called out. No one answered. She shrugged, slipping her shoes off and tossing them to the side of the door. Heading up to Miley's room, she paused when she heard someone crying inside. "Miley?"

"Go away!"

The blonde gently pushed the door open and stepped inside, dropping her book bag on the ground when she caught sight of Miley's shaking form over by the French doors. Her guitar was in her lap and she was staring out at the ocean. "Miley?" Lilly whispered uncertainly.

"What would you do…if you knew you were going to die?"

She stared at Miley, eyes wide in fear. "What?"

"There're all those stupid songs out there. 'Live Like You Were Dying,' by Tim McGraw, 'Live Like We're Dying,' by Kris Allen or the Script or whoever wrote the damn song. They don't understand."

"Miley, you're scaring me," Lilly whimpered.

The brunette turned to look at her, tears streaming down her face. "I…I can't do this," she sobbed.

"What happened at the hospital?" Lilly asked.

"Go ask my dad."

Lilly didn't know if it was safe to leave Miley alone like this, but she figured that she had probably been sitting alone for at least fifteen minutes and five more wouldn't hurt her. She stepped forward and kissed Miley gently on the forehead, whispering, "I love you," in her ear before going to look for Mr. Stewart. She found him pacing on the back deck with his phone pressed to his ear. Opening the door, she slipped outside just as he sat down at the small glass table with a notebook and pencil.

"Can you repeat that?" he asked. He was quiet for a moment. "The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center," he repeated slowly. Lilly's eyes widened. "And what's the phone number? 1-281-829-7204, okay, thank you. Yes, I'll call if I have any more questions. Thank you again. Okay, bye." He hung up the phone and looked at Lilly with sad, tired eyes.

"Cancer?" she whimpered, tears starting to leak out of the corners of her eyes.

Mr. Stewart sighed. "We're just looking at all the options," he said tiredly. "The type of cancer the specialist at the hospital was concerned about is very unlikely for Miley's age, so she said that it's not probable, but better safe than sorry. I'm going to schedule an appointment with a specialist at one of the best cancer hospitals in the country tonight. Miley's gonna need you, Lilly. I know it's hard and that you're young, but can you do me a favor? Can you do her a favor?"

"Anything for Miley," Lilly said, nodding vigorously as she tried to hold back her tears.

"Be strong for her, Lilly," he said, putting a heavy hand on her shoulder. "Don't…don't let her see your pain. Me and Jackson and your mom are here for you, Lilly, but Miley…I don't know if she could take any more right now. Just promise me that you won't leave her and that you'll be strong for her. She needs you."

"I promise," Lilly said, nodding firmly.

"Thank you, Lilly," he said, letting out a sigh of relief. "You have no idea how much that means to me. And don't keep it inside. Promise me that, too, because it'll only hurt both of you in the end."

"Okay, Mr. S," she said. "I'm…I'm gonna go back to Miley."

"It's times like these when I really need you, Susan," Mr. Stewart murmured to himself as Lilly turned away. Then it hit Lilly. This was why everyone was so touchy about this. Susan, Miley's mother, had died of bone cancer when Miley was really little. They couldn't lose another family member to cancer. No, they couldn't lose Miley. _Lilly_ couldn't lose Miley. She raced back into the house, up the stairs, and into Miley's room.

The brunette turned to look at her with watery eyes as she burst in and Lilly surged forward, wrapping her arms around Miley and pulling her close, letting her bury her face in her shoulder. She held back the tears and the fear. Miley needed her now and she had promised Mr. Stewart that she would take care of Miley. She had promised that she would help her get better. Lilly had promised.

She wouldn't let Miley die.

_**Well, there you go. Sorry about the lapse of time between chapters, but I've been getting horrible cases of writer's block. That, added with a humongous workload, has not helped in updating my stories. Once again, I apologize. Thanks to TheBoredOne85, AlvinFan07, musicisinmysoul, liarforthis, and AliasSpyCrazy for reviewing. You guys are awesome. REVIEW!!! I'll try to get the next chapter up in the next two weeks. Thank you all again.**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


	7. Chapter Six: Leaving

Lilly went through her dresser, pulling out some t-shirts and neatly putting them in her suitcase before she turned to her closet and pulled a couple pairs of jeans and some hoodies off some hangars and putting them in on top of her t-shirts. After three days of arguing, begging, complaining, and crying, she had finally convinced her mom to let her go to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center with the conditions that she would keep up with her schoolwork, not be a nuisance to the Stewarts, and call at least twice a day.

"Lillian! Come down for dinner!" her mom yelled up the stairs. The blonde sighed and checked off some items on her checklist of things to pack before going downstairs to the dining room. The table was set for five, which confused Lilly. It was just the two of them.

"Who's coming over?" she asked.

"I invited the Stewarts," her mom said, setting a basket of bread on the table and going into the kitchen. "They're going through a lot right now and I thought that it would be helpful if they didn't have to cook dinner once this week, let alone cook dinner for an extra person." She came back into the dining room with two more baskets of bread and fixed an accusing gaze on Lilly as she set them on the table.

"Mr. Stewart was begging me to come over for dinner," Lilly whined. "He said that Miley wouldn't eat without me there and she… well, she needs to eat, Mom. If there's something I can do to help her get better, than I'm going to do it."

Her mom sighed as she went back into the kitchen only to come out a few seconds later with a large bowl of spaghetti. "I just don't want you to get hurt, Lilly," she said softly, setting the bowl down on the table and wiping her hands on her pants. "Look, I know that Miley is going through a really hard time right now and that she needs you, but do you really have to be dating her when there's a chance that she might…?" She trailed off.

"Die?" Lilly asked, laughing humorlessly. "Or would you prefer 'pass away,' Mom? You have an awfully weird way of showing that you don't want me to be too close to Miley, inviting her family over for dinner and all. I love her, Mom, and nothing, _nothing_, is ever going to keep me from wanting to be with her. And as long as she wants me, I'm going to be right by her side every single second I possibly can. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to finish packing for my trip with my _girlfriend_."

She ran up the stairs, tears streaming down her face as she slammed her bedroom door shut behind her. The doorbell rang and she curled up in the corner of her room, pulling her knees up to her chest and burying her face in her jeans as she sobbed. There was a knock on the door and she heard it open. Someone sat down next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. Lilly looked up to see Miley sitting next to her, a pair of sunglasses perched on the bridge of her nose.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked softly.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Lilly said quickly, wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her hoodie and blinking rapidly to try to keep from letting any more tears leak onto her face. A hurt look flickered across Miley's face.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" she asked softly. "And yes, I know that you don't want to hurt me because I might have cancer, but… Lilly, I don't want you to be hiding stuff from me. I know what my dad said about being strong for me and all, but that's not how a relationship is supposed to be. We're equal, baby, and I want it to stay like that."

"My mom…" Lilly murmured, cuddling into Miley's side and letting her tears start to flow again. Miley pulled her closer and let her cry. "She… she wants me to break up with you because she's afraid… she thinks that you're going to die and… she said that she doesn't want me to get hurt, but I know that she's just jealous because I've been spending more time with you than I have been with her and I've always spent more time with you than her."

"Should you really be coming to Texas…?"

"I'm coming," Lilly said harshly, regretting it when she saw Miley wince from the loud sound. "Sorry, but… I _have_ to come, Miley. If something happened… I don't know if I could stand being away from you that long when there's so much potential for you to get hurt or… or…."

"Nothing's going to happen to me," Miley whispered, burying her face in Lilly's hair. "I'm going to be fine and this is all going to be okay. Now how about you come downstairs so we can start dinner. Or we could stay up here and make Jackson wait to eat. Either one will make me happy."

Lilly laughed through her tears. "I love you so much," she whispered, pulling away from Miley so she could lean forward and kiss her gently. "Come on, let's go downstairs so we don't keep your brother waiting. You know how he can be when he isn't fed when he's hungry, and I don't want to have to deal with that right now."

"Wait, Lilly, can you… just promise me one thing?" Miley asked as Lilly stood up. The blonde looked down at her, taking her by the hand and helping her to her feet and nodding in agreement to whatever Miley was going to request of her. "Promise me that you won't let me come between you and your mother. There is nothing in the world that should ever separate the two of you and it can be extremely painful to lose your mother. Promise me that."

The blonde closed her eyes and sighed. "Miley, honey, I need you to understand something," she said softly as she ran a hand through her hair. "My mother and I… we don't always get along, but one way or the other, we always make up after our fights. Sometimes we stay mad at each other longer than other times, but we always forgive and forget. And this is something that I will not give ground on. I love you, Miley, and if my mom doesn't accept that, then she's going to have to learn to deal with it. And I know that this is a sensitive topic because of what happened to your mom, but you have to understand that I am not going to give up my relationship with you simply because my mother told me to."

"If something happens to your mom…" Miley started.

"I know that you lost your mom and that you don't want that to happen to me, but please let me deal with this," Lilly whispered. "My mom and I have a… complicated relationship. Maybe I'll explain it to you sometime, but I'm just going to let things take their course. We still love each other, Miles; we just don't agree on something right now. Yes, we disagree, but we'll work it out. Now _you_ promise_ me_ that you won't worry your pretty little head over this."

Miley looked at her warily. "You and your mom will still talk to each other?" she asked doubtfully.

"Of course we will," Lilly assured her. "Just because we got in an argument doesn't mean that we'll cut off all communication with each other. Do you want to know what we do? We usually take a mini vacation, like I'll go over to your house for a sleepover or I'll hang out with Oliver for a day and she'll go out with some of her friends, then we'll talk it out after we've calmed down. Because if we try to discuss it while one of us is still upset, then both of us will just get angrier at the other person."

There was a knock on the door and it opened to reveal Lilly's mother standing on the threshold. "Is everything okay up here?" she asked softly. "Jackson is getting hungry and I thought that you two would appreciate if I came up here rather than him. Is there something I can get you, Miley?"

"No, I'm fine," the brunette answered with a small smile. "Just talking to Lilly here. We'll be down in a few minutes."

"Okay, girls, try to be quick, though, because everyone is hungry," her mom whispered before leaving and shutting the door softly behind her.

"See, everything is fine," Lilly whispered, kissing her softly. "Now are you ready to go down or do you want to stay up here for a little longer? You could help me finish packing."

"Let's go down," Miley decided, reaching down and taking Lilly's hand in her own, lacing their fingers together. "I don't want to make Jackson wait any longer." Lilly smiled as Miley brought her hand to her mouth and kissed it gently before they made their way downstairs.

Jackson, Mr. Stewart, and Lilly's mom were already sitting at the table and two spots right next to each other had been left open for Lilly and Miley. The girls sat down and Mr. Stewart nodded at Jackson, who immediately dished a pile of spaghetti onto his place, poured sauce over it, and took three pieces of bread. Lilly looked over at Miley to see the brunette shaking her head in embarrassment.

"So, what are the sunglasses for, Miley?" Lilly's mom asked, trying to start up a conversation. Lilly looked at her with wide eyes.

"My eyes are very sensitive to light," Miley said shortly. Lilly reached under the table and squeezed the brunette's hand reassuringly before reaching for the bowl of spaghetti and serving Miley some before she served some for herself. Miley smiled at Lilly and nodded in thanks, pouring sauce over her spaghetti. Lilly reached for the bread and grabbed herself three slices and Miley two.

"So when are you leaving for Texas?" Lilly's mom asked.

Lilly stood up, clenching her teeth angrily as she shot a glare at her mother. She didn't know how she could be so tactless. "I hate you," she muttered before running out of the room.

"Lilly!" her mom yelled, standing up and calling after her.

"Don't yell," Miley whimpered, covering her ears.

The blonde stomped up the stairs and into her room, slamming her door shut behind her. She kicked her bed savagely, taking her suitcase from her bed and throwing it to the floor. Everything scattered all over her floor and she fell to her knees when she realized what she had done, tears streaming down her face. Righting her suitcase, she quickly put everything back in as neatly as she could and finished putting everything she would need inside.

Grabbing her book bag, she stuffed all of her schoolbooks inside and swung it onto her back. Taking hold of her suitcase, she yanked her door open and dragged her suitcase downstairs. Her mother was standing at the bottom of the stairs, her hands on her hips and an angry look on her face. "Lillian Anne Truscott, what do you…?"

"I'm leaving," Lilly snapped, cutting her mom off. "I'm going with the Stewarts and there's nothing you can do to stop me. The plane leaves tomorrow morning. Don't count on a goodbye."

_**Thank you for the reviews from TheBoredOne85, liarforthis, ScorpioP, Sophi20, and AlvinFan07. You guys are awesome. I'll get the next chapter up as soon as possible.**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


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